Bellport man dies after losing control on LIE in Manorville

A Bellport man died after Suffolk police say he lost control of his vehicle on the Long Island Expressway and veered into the woods near Exit 69 in Manorville, a crash that turned a familiar westbound commute into a fatal scene in a matter of moments.

The victim was identified as 32-year-old Julio Borges of Bellport. Police said the crash happened around 5:30 p.m. Friday in the westbound lanes of the LIE, one of the island’s busiest roadways and a corridor that carries commuters, truck traffic and drivers heading toward the Hamptons and the North Fork. A physician assistant from the Office of the Suffolk County Medical Examiner pronounced Borges dead at the scene.

Investigators have not said what caused Borges to lose control. Suffolk police asked anyone with information about the crash to call the Suffolk County Police Department at 631-852-8752, a sign that detectives are still working to reconstruct the final moments before the vehicle left the roadway.

The death adds to a broader concern over deadly crashes on Long Island roads, where fatal collisions continue to draw scrutiny because of the volume and speed of traffic on major arteries like the LIE. Newsday’s ongoing Dangerous Roads project has examined the causes behind the high number of crashes across the Island, and its data page said 32 people lost their lives on Long Island roads in one of the worst recent months for traffic fatalities. That broader pattern gives added weight to a crash like this one in Manorville, where a single vehicle leaving the highway can still end in a death.

For Bellport, the loss is immediate and personal because the victim was identified by hometown. For Suffolk, it is another reminder that the LIE remains one of the county’s most unforgiving stretches, where a few seconds of loss of control can send a vehicle off the pavement and into a fatal outcome.